UNDERINVESTMENT AND TIMBER RIGHTS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE EARLY TASMANIAN AND VICTORIAN TIMBER INDUSTRIES

Author

R. Pitchford

Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1994, vol. 38, issue 03

Abstract: This paper distinguishes between the hypothesis that the Victorian government developed a reputation for easy renewal of timber rights, so that the lack of clearly defined site sizes and the short-term nature of these rights did not matter, and the hypothesis that tenure and site size as written in law was the major determinant. A model of a firm's investment choice when there is uncertain tenure is developed to examine the effect of changes in the tenure prospect on capital intensity. The predictions of this model are then used to assess the competing hypotheses with reference to data on capital labour ratios and legislation regarding tenure and site size laws in Victoria and Tasmania from 1890 to 1927.

Keywords: Productivity Analysis; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://purl.umn.edu/22733 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:ajaeau:22733

Access Statistics for this article

Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics is currently edited by December

More articles in Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics from  Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by AgEcon Search (aesearch@umn.edu).

For further details log on website :
http://econpapers.repec.org/article/agsajaeau/22733.htm